Page 116 of Bene

Because he loved her.

But she didn’t get to tell him the same.

Not now.

He understood well this was exactly why he didn’t want to get closer to her when he first entered the bathroom. His entire mind went crazy around this woman. Stupid, maybe, if he were being honest. He reacted from emotions with her; he found himself willing to debase his integrity and raising for her.

To have her.

And that spelled bad news all over.

Vanna blinked, tears slipping from the corners of her eyes as she swallowed hard. She spoke as though she knew exactly what was running through his mind when his gaze fell to her lips, and then darted back up to her eyes. “Just do it, Bene. Will it make you feel better to use me because that’s what I wanted to do to you? Don’t pussy out now—you put the knife in, I’m letting you twist it. That’s what you want? Then, just fucking do it.”

He lurched forward—those pesky emotions again—to get his mouth on hers. Their lips crashed together as he slammed her back against the counter. Those fingernails of hers, always manicured to perfect points, scored against his throat as she took his kiss just as rough as he wanted to give it to her.

All teeth, and tongue clashing.

Ruining her lipstick, probably.

Her taste in his mouth.

God.

Her back hit the sink counter hard, but she barely reacted to it at all. He only kept her pinned against the counter just long enough to drag her skirt up over her thighs and bunched around her waist. He lifted her to the granite counter, and her legs widened while her ankles hooked at his hips. Her hands did the rest of the work to undo his pants before dragging them down around his hips with his boxer-briefs to let his cock spring free to her waiting palms.

Tight strokes of her hands made his already hard cock feel like pulsing steel. Her words a breathless plea when she mumbled against his kiss, “Fuck me … please, just fuck me one more time, Bene.”

Not that he was in any position to deny her, but all he needed was to hear his name on her mouth to cement that decision. But unlike all the other times the two of them had fucked—all the moments he took to enjoy himself with her, to feast on her and take her so high again and again, he wouldn’t do that this time. Wouldn’t give her all of that again when it would only kill him that he couldn’t allow himself to keep loving this woman.

But he could fuck her, sure.

Like he hated her, and the very ground she dared to walk on.

It would be a lie.

A terrible, fragile lie.

Still, he could do it.

“Show me that pussy,” he demanded. “And I’ll fuck you the way you want.”

Vanna dragged in a lungful of air as he drifted away from her lips, and without question, she let go of his cock to get her hands between her thighs. She showed no hesitation about pulling her nude panties to the side, the slit of her pussy a soft, wet pink already.

“Your turn,” she urged.

The thing Bene loved to do the most when he fucked this woman?

Kiss her while he filled her full.

All those sounds she made.

How she tasted.

It was electrifying.

He didn’t do that this time. He kept his hands on her thighs, forcing them wide as she tipped her head back to the mirror and let him stuff her pussy full of his cock. She didn’t try to take more than what he gave her while he pounded into her, their words gone as they chased one last high.

It was so familiar.